Joohyuk's blood is boiling and his veins are pulsing with nothing but pure anger as he stomps through the foreign streets of Seoul alone. His jaw is tense and his fists are clenched tightly by his side, begging to be released against a hard wall of some sort with Jongin's words of retaliation echoing repeatedly with every step he takes and he just can't seem to run away from it.

"You have no idea how many nights she spent crying," Joohyuk says, stopping Jongin in his tracks as he tries to leave the situation as the winner. "You don't know how long it took for her to regain her smile. Just let her go."

He hears a sigh from Jongin before he turns back around. "And you have no idea how many nights I spent wondering, waiting if she would ever returned. I had my fair share of tears and endless, torturous nights too. You don't understand the feeling of always missing someone and the frustration of not knowing why. Just because I lost my memory doesn't mean I didn't ever love her and that we didn't have what we had."

Joohyuk's expression darkens immediately. Surely he had a point but it's all because of the scars that Jongin had created that Soojung never truly allowed herself to open up to him. And for that reason itself, Joohyuk detested the guy.

"For the two years that she was with you," Jongin pauses to wait until Joohyuk turns back to him. "Thanks for taking care of her."

Joohyuk comes to a halt when he finds Sehun taking a smoke break outside of Soojung's apartment complex. The anger in him suddenly dies out as Sehun's cold eyes land on him, expecting him almost. Sehun initiates a greeting and Joohyuk follows before approaching the younger male.

"I'm believe you must've heard about me already," Joohyuk begins quietly and Sehun nods.

"Nice to finally meet you, I'm Sehun," he extends his free hand and Joohyuk shakes it gently. "You smoke?" He holds up the lit cigarette between his fingers and Joohyuk shakes his head. Sehun sighs and after one last puff, he kills the bud by stepping on it. "Good, I don't either." Joohyuk is about to mention the cigarette he just put out but Sehun snickers quietly. "Once in awhile when happens, I'd like to think there are worst things that can happen, like," he motions to the bud on the ground, "killing yourself with this nasty thing here."

Joohyuk nods at Sehun's theory and he feels a bit more at ease for some sort. "Is she okay?"

Sehun shakes his head. "She's a wreck. She's always a wreck." He can see Joohyuk itching to go up but of course, he isn't going to allow it. "She wants to be alone. Girl time, you know." Nodding again, Joohyuk leans against the cold wall next to Sehun. "Thanks for staying beside Soojung despite her stubbornness. Knowing that she had someone to keep her company while we were all here really put us at ease."

"She wasn't that stubborn," Joohyuk mumbles in response and they snicker dryly for a second.

"I don't need to know you to know that you're a good person, Soojung's judgment is enough," Sehun says and pushes himself off the wall. "But I wish that you respect her wishes of wanting to be alone to figure herself out. She doesn't need a knight in shining armor because she's not a damsel in distress."

Joohyuk finds himself nodding again and despite being the older one, he can't seem to make himself heard. After another minute or so, Sehun dismisses himself back in and asks that Joohyuk leaves and comes back another day when Soojung feels better.

***

A week and a half go by without hearing from Soojung. It took everything in him to not show up at his old apartment and ask for some time because every time he does get the chance to get her alone, Jongin always s up. But yet again, maybe he isn't the one ing up and instead, her. His words repel off her faster than magnets repelling each other and that's simply because the wall she's been subconsciously building during her time away has gotten so thick from this nightmare that has seeped into her reality. Soojung has always had walls, before they were together and even when they were together, he'd find himself breaking a wall neither knew existed in her. For someone who was so deathly afraid of being hurt, life couldn't be more evil to present it to Soojung in the worst way ever. It was wrapped up in their love that was once so beautiful and straight out of a story book, disguised in the brown and Hazel hues of his enchanting eyes and holding her captive in the haven of his warmth that she would fall back to every night. Jongin was the only person who could break those walls and build them right back up again.

It was around one thirty in the morning when Jongin was awaken with a call. He rarely ever woke up to calls when he was asleep but whenever he did, he knew there was a good reason why. His hand reaches out to grab the phone from his nightstand and he answers the call without bothering to open his eyes.

"Ello?" He croaks.

There's a lot of shifting from the other side instead of an answer but Jongin doesn't seem to notice and might have fallen asleep again until a small voice seeps into his ears and blows away all signs of sleep in his system.

She doesn't actually say anything of he doesn't think she is but Jongin recognizes the voice no doubt. He can tell she's not home and somewhere where there's a lot of people.

"Soojung-ah," Jongin calls as he sits up in bed. "Soojung, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Finally after some fumbling, Soojung responds. "Oh?" She hiccups cutely. "Wait, who is this?" She slurs cutely and it registers in him that she's completely wasted.

"It's me, Jongin," he says calmly, "Jung, are you okay?"

"Oh! Jongin-nini!" She chuckles and although he finds it cute and hopes she wouldn't stop, Jongin can't stop worrying. "W-why," hiccup, "h-how did I call you? Anyways," she hiccups again. "Bye!"

"Yah!" Jongin hisses. "No, no, no, no! Don't hang up on me! Jung, where are you?"

Although she had said her goodbyes, Soojung doesn't actually hang up and Jongin assumes it's because she's too drunk to.

"Auntie, another Soju please!"

He hears her shout into the distance and he tries his hardest not to smile because this is a serious situation. Serious Jongin, serious.

"Soojung, where are you? Let me come get you," he offers but Soojung doesn't here and mumbles to herself about how she's so sleepy between asking for more soju.

Next thing he hears is an Ahjumma that he quickly assumes is the auntie Soojung was calling for earlier worriedly scolding Soojung for drinking so much by herself and refusing to give her any more alcohol. She must've noticed Soojung's phone and picked up the call.

"Hello?" She nearly shouts in her thick Jeolla dialect and Jongin feigns away from the sudden increase in volume.

"Hello?" Jongin replies.

"Do you know the girl here?" She asks, still yelling into the phone. "This girl is so pretty, how dare you let her roam these streets alone in this state?! Come get her now!"

No need to say it twice as Jongin was already halfway out the door when he heard Soojung giggle.

Not even fifteen minutes later and Jongin slips himself into a red booth with both his hands in his pocket and hoodie covering his eyes. He finds her towards the back, head buried in her arms but her fingers are dancing on the small table top with the shot glass between her index and middle finger.

"Auntie," Soojung groans deeply when he slips into the seat across from her. "Soju."

Jongin sighs at the sight, pulls down his ominous hood and this time, he asks for the Soju.

"Who is going to take her home if you get drunk too?" The curly hair Ahjumma asks with a slight frown.

Jongin grins and shakes his head lightly. "It's exactly what I need in order to take her home."

"Oh!?" Soojung's head pops up slightly at the sound of his voice with her hair falling all over her pretty face. "Nini?"

He just smiles at the nickname. She always called him that whenever she was intoxicated because Jongin always seemed too much for her tongue to handle.

"Whaaa," she chuckles and roughly pushes away all her hair to look at him with squinted eyes. "Whaaa, it's really you."

He nods as the Ahjumma cautiously sets down his bottle of soju between them. Soojung decides to fall back onto her arm and sighs dramatically. "I'm so sleepy."

"Shall I take you home?" Jongin snaps off the cap of the jar and takes the shot glass out of her fingers to fill it up for himself. It burns all the way down to his stomach but feels refreshing.

Soojung mopes around for a second before shaking her head like a cute child.

"Then do you want to go to my home?" Jongin asks instead and she snickers.

"Kyungsoo Oppa," she hiccups, "Will not like it."

He shakes his head although her eyes are closed. "Kyungsoo Oppa would rather have you tucked safely into his bed than have you sit here mopping this table with yourself."

She chuckles quietly before going quiet. Jongin sighs and takes two more shots before deciding it was all he needed.

"Jung-ah," he calls again and she answers him with a cute hum. "Shall we go home now?"

This time she nods so Jongin walks around the table to her side and squats with his back facing her.

"Back," he says and she automatically morphs herself against him, legs around his waist and arms snaking around his neck. It was obvious in the way their bodies were so orchestrated that they've done this one too many times.

Her breath tickles the side of his neck as he carries her home along the line of pretty city lamps. She still used the same perfume and whenever a breeze slipped by, her scent would fill his nose and cling onto him. Jongin knows well enough that the only time Soojung becomes an open book is when she's intoxicated and when he first asked her about her drunken words, she'd told them they were always her honest thoughts. Drunk Soojung has no filter and a filter free Soojung was what he needed most at the moment.

"Why did you drink so much today?" Jongin asks her, his tone calm and much like how he would speak to a child.

Soojung hiccups with her cheek against his shoulder. "Because I miss you."

Because I miss you.

Miss you.

Miss.

You.

"Is that all?"

"Why'd you have to go and forget me," she states bitterly. Her words are all slurred but he makes them out perfectly. "I just miss you. That's all."

He lowers his head and although he's smiling, his heart is throbbing in pain because there's just so much going on, neither can get their heads on straight enough to sit down and have a normal conversation.

"Nini," she squirms and he stops walking. "I want to walk."

"I don't think you're capable of doing so right now," he tells her but Soojung thinks otherwise and shakes her head vigorously so he sets her down carefully but holds onto her until she looks stable enough on her own.

To his surprise, when he lets go, she takes his hand and laces her fingers with his. Jongin holds her hand up to his chest and pulls her close as if he might lose her again.

"I miss you," she says again with her cheek pressed up against his arm.

"I'm right here," he tells her but Soojung shakes her head with her hair flying everywhere.

"I miss the you that remembers me," hiccup, "The Nini that use to love me."

Jongin stops walking and turns to her. Her cheeks are flushed against her pale white skin and her hair is sticking awkwardly to her face. Her lids are heavy with sleep and her lip is in a constant pout but he finds it all cute. He always has.

Using his hand that isn't holding onto hers, he reaches out to tuck her hair back and she leans into his touch.